The services were developed out of News Now 53, a regional cable news channel that operated from December 1996 to April 2011, which was operated by Cox Communications Oklahoma in conjunction with Griffin Communications, and was carried on cable systems within Cox's Oklahoma service area.

The concept of the channel dates back to the August 1993 extension of a retransmission consent agreement made between KWTV and Oklahoma City area cable providers Cox Cable (which rebranded as Cox Communications in 1996) and Multimedia Cablevision (whose systems in suburban areas of the city were acquired by Cox in 2000) to continue carriage of the station's signal; as part of the deal, KWTV announced that it would create a locally originated cable channel providing news, sports and weather information for the two providers.

In 2008, the channel underwent a graphical revamp, with the introduction of a new logo and the implementation of a new "L" bar (which was an expansion to the graphical display that featured only the current time and temperature as well as notifications regarding the newscast that was being rebroadcast at that time), displaying five-day forecasts for the respective markets, along with banner advertisements for Cox Communications and local area businesses.

This "L" bar – which evolved into its current format displaying current conditions and 24-hour forecasts for various weather observation sites around Oklahoma on the lower portion of the screen with banner ads remaining on the right-hand portion – only appears during rebroadcasts of KWTV/KOTV newscasts and is removed for commercial breaks and live broadcasts – though technical errors occasionally result in the "L" bar display not appearing during some news rebroadcasts.

News 9 Now formerly broadcasts CBS This Morning Saturday in lieu of KWTV and Face the Nation in its entirety as KWTV does not broadcast the second half-hour of the program live from the CBS network feed (the first half-hour airs on Sunday mornings in tandem with News 9 Now's broadcast of the program, while KWTV's main channel airs the second half of the program on a tape delay on Sunday nights/early Monday mornings).